What Is SHA-256?
Securing Hashing Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) is the hashing algorithm used to secure blockchains such as Bitcoin, where the hashing function emits a 256-bit wide output.
The hashing algorithm is responsible for wallet address creation and management along with the verification of transactions on the blockchain ledger through mining. [1]Bitcoin Wiki – SHA-256
How Secure Is SHA-256?
SHA-256 is a variant of the SHA-2, which was initially developed by the National Security Agency.[2]Federal Register – Announcing Approval of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2, Secure Hash Standard; a Revision of FIPS 180-1 This means that the inner workings of the algorithm aren’t known to the public as it protects sensitive information belonging to the United States.
It is practically impossible to reveal the initial data from a hash value as they are only one-way functions.
Bitcoin utilizes a double SHA-256, meaning once they get the initial hash from the data, it is hashed once again – this creates an insurmountable amount of possible hashes basically eliminating the chance of a brute-force attack as it would take 2^256 attempts to generate the initial data,[3]N-able – SHA-256 Algorithm Overview more than the number of atoms in the universe.
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